Members of the transgender community take part in a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol, Monday, March 6, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The group is opposing a "bathroom bill" that would require people to use public bathrooms and restrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) less

Members of the transgender community take part in a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol, Monday, March 6, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The group is opposing a "bathroom bill" that would require people to use ... more

Photo: Eric Gay, STF

Photo: Eric Gay, STF

Image
1of/3

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 3

Members of the transgender community take part in a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol, Monday, March 6, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The group is opposing a "bathroom bill" that would require people to use public bathrooms and restrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) less

Members of the transgender community take part in a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol, Monday, March 6, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The group is opposing a "bathroom bill" that would require people to use ... more

WASHINGTON – When assistant state Attorney General Jeff Mateer goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a federal judge nominee, there will be strong echoes of Texas' transgender "bathroom bill" debate.

Mateer, President Donald Trump's pick for to be a judge in the Eastern District of Texas, has long been a leading conservative champion of religious freedom and a critic of transgender rights. But it has only been since his nomination was made public two weeks ago that his controversial statements have come to light comparing same-sex marriage to bestiality and referring to the rights of transgender children as part of "Satan's plan."

Candidates for federal judge positions in Texas were required to disclose controversial public statements like those to an advisory group that works with the state's two U.S. senators – Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. They in turn recommended Mateer and four other judicial candidates to the White House.

But sources close to Mateer's vetting process say his most provocative remarks on transgender and gay rights were withheld.

Mateer did not respond Thursday to a request for comment through the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, his boss. Cornyn and Cruz also have maintained their silence.

Mateer's comments, made in a pair of speeches in 2015, have caused a furor in the LGBT community and prompted the Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, to question his impartiality.

The question of disclosure also will be closely scrutinized.

"The senators and the commission should be troubled because the system can only work if decision-makers have and consider all the information, so incidents like this don't happen," said Congress watcher Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond Law School.

Before Cornyn and Cruz recommended Mateer to Trump, he was screened by the bipartisan Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, a 35-member group of lawyers, judges and other legal professionals who work with the two Senate offices.

They're volunteers. They have no investigative staff.

David Prichard, a San Antonio attorney who chairs the committee, said he could not talk about Meteer's case. But, he added, the issues surrounding his past remarks will be a "fair topic" for the Senate.

"This is going to be sorted out at the appropriate place," Prichard said in an interview Thursday. "That's why you have Senate hearings. That's why you have a confirmation vote... Let the chips fall where they may."

Prichard, who has served on the committee since 2003, noted that the 37-page questionnaire the group uses to evaluate candidates includes one about handling controversial cases:

"Describe any case you have personally litigated that received material publicity or commentary in the general media or legal community, or if the subject matter could be in good faith be considered controversial."

Meteer, as the former general counsel for a Plano-based group now known as the First Liberty Institute, a religious advocacy organization, is no stranger to the culture wars over same-sex marriage, transgender rights, and the leadup to Texas' so-called "bathroom" bill.

What is not known is what he divulged to the review committee about a pair of statements he made in 2015.

In a May 2015 speech unearthed by CNN, Mateer recounted a Colorado lawsuit in which the parents of a transgender child sued her school for preventing her from using the bathroom of her choice.

"In Colorado, a public school has been sued because a first grader and I forget the sex, she's a girl who thinks she's a boy or a boy who thinks she's a girl, it's probably that, a boy who thinks she's a girl," Mateer said.

"And the school said, 'Well, she's not using the girl's restroom.' And so she has now sued to have a right to go in. Now, I submit to you, a parent of three children who are now young adults, a first grader really knows what their sexual identity? I mean it just really shows you how Satan's plan is working and the destruction that's going on."

In that same speech, Mateer criticized the Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage, saying it could lead to what he called "disgusting" new forms of matrimony, including polygamy and bestiality. "We're back to that time where debauchery rules," he said.

Prichard said it would be a breach of confidentiality to say whether that and another 2015 speech defending the controversial practice of gay "conversion therapy" were disclosed to the committee.But the coming Senate hearings will tell.

"Whatever comments he made he's going to be responsible for," Prichard said. "We're just the first step in a lengthy, thorough process, and the process is working... At the end of the day, they all get a vote."